Major debate results in a victory for secularism

The long-anticipated debate with the proposition “We would we be better off without religion” took place on Tuesday at Westminster Central Hall before a capacity audience of more than 2,000 people – and the proposition was overwhelmingly accepted.

Proposing the motion was NSS honorary associate Christopher Hitchens, who gave a rousing call to all secularists to resist the encroachment of religion – which he says ‘poisons everything’ – into aspects of life where it doesn’t belong. He was backed by Richard Dawkins (another honorary associate) who made an unarguable case for the falseness of the religious hypothesis, and an equally impassioned case for the respect of truth, evidence, science and curiosity. Third on our side was yet another NSS honorary associate, AC Grayling, who spoke amusingly about what a Martian would make of the way we live. He said if he questioned people about what they wanted for their children they would most likely say “happiness” or “success” or “the ability for them to think for themselves”. All things that are forbidden in the Bible.

One of the opponents of the motion was Rabbi Julia Neuberger, a favourite on Thought for the Day. She was just as platitudinous on the debating platform as she is on the airwaves. She was backed up by Roger Scruton, a right-wing philosopher who went through the familiar arguments that anyone who opposed religion as false was an “atheist fundamentalist”. Also on the opposing team was Nigel Spivey, teacher of classical art at Cambridge University, who rehearsed the tired old idea that without religion there would be no art, no music, no appreciation of the finer things (Sistine chapel, St Marks Square, Bach Masses etc etc). This was rapidly shot down by our own team.

A lively, and occasionally tetchy, debate followed which included questions from the audience. Keith Porteous Wood, the NSS Executive Director, managed to catch the eye of chairperson Joan Bakewell and asked whether the lot of women and homosexuals would be improved if we didn’t have religion. The question brought a round of applause.

From that moment it was clear that the secularist case had been most convincingly made and the final vote was For: 1,205; Against: 778, Don’t Know: 100. The event was sponsored by Intelligence Squared and the Times.

Hear the debate here.
Read Ruth Gledhill’s blog about the event here.
See some images of the event here.
This is a Comment is Free take on it.
You can also hear Richard Dawkins at the Sunday Times Literary Festival.
Part One.
Part Two.
(30 March 2007)